Together Again
by piscesclio
Summary: Takes place after Season 7. Buffy and Spike see each other again after he has been brought back and is working at Wolfram & Hart and she has a big surprise.
1. Ch 1

Angel walked down the street, ready for a fight and not exactly caring where he found one. He needed a release, needed anything that would stop him from putting a stake through Spike's heart. The annoyingly arrogant houseguest was overstaying his welcome. Actually, Spike had never been very welcome to begin with, but do to Fred's pleading and Captain Peroxide's current usefulness it had been overlooked. However, his constant quips about Buffy were too much for Angel to bare, and they just kept getting worse.  
  
It was no secret that Buffy and Spike had had something going on for a while, a very short while, but the way Spike bragged about it, it was like they had a relationship. No, Angel couldn't let himself believe that Buffy would want Spike. He was too.....Spike. The thought of them actually being a couple was wrong on so many levels that it made him sick at the thought of it.  
  
At first, Angel let the comments roll off his back. It was Spike making them and he liked to press buttons and see if he could make Angel blow his top. It was one of the things he loved to do most, and after a century of practice he was undeniably good at it. But the more he talked the more truthful he sounded. Tonight he confessed that Buffy had said she loved him and Angel had to leave before he killed the peroxide idiot.  
  
Something in the way Spike had made his confession was too believable. He had said it in a way that was too soft, too sad, to be anything other than the truth. After that all Angel had seen was red, his bloodlust hitting the peak of nearly uncontrollable.  
  
Buffy couldn't love Spike. Could she? No. Absolutely not. She was in love with him. Wasn't she? They were supposed to love each other. They were Buffy and Angel. They were in love. It was a tragic love that could never be acted on, but they were still in love. That was the way it was, wasn't it?  
  
Yet, he had been in love with Cordelia. He still loved Cordy. The fact didn't change how he felt about Buffy. She could love other guys. It was perfectly in her right to be with other men, just not Spike.  
  
Angel shook his head to rid it of all the unwanted thoughts. He didn't want to think about any of it anymore. He wanted a fight, to beat something in to an unrecognizable pulp. Yet, there was nothing to fight, nobody seemed to need rescuing on that very still night. It was almost midnight and in the four hours since he had started walking the usually dangerous streets of LA there had been no action of any kind to be found. In fact, it was eerily quiet.  
  
Out of nowhere Angel ran into somebody, knocking her to the pavement. He hadn't even seen anybody approaching, he had been so consumed by his thoughts.  
  
Immediately, Angel went to help the young women to her feet. "I'm so sorry."  
  
The girl hadn't lifted her head yet, but he could since that she had become stiff at hearing him speak. He offered her his hand, but she brushed it away and stood by herself. This girl obviously didn't want his help. When she finally pushed her long, wild brown hair out of her face he understood why.

Dawn walked down the street swallowed by her thoughts. She was so unaware of her surroundings that she wasn't even aware of the person directly in her path until she collided with him and was sent crashing to the ground. She was about to apologize when she heard him beat her to it.  
  
Every muscle in her body tensed. She knew that voice, she'd know it anywhere. Angel. Why did she have to run into him. Of all the people in LA to run into it had to be him. Just her luck. Dawn didn't look up at him and when he offered to help her stand, she shrugged it off. He hadn't recognized her yet. If he had she knew he would have been yelling at her.  
  
For a second, Dawn debated if it were possible for her to get up and walk away with out him ever knowing it was her. Not a chance. She might as well get it over with. Dawn pulled herself to her feet and pushed her hair away from his face, enjoying the look of pure shock written across his face.  
  
"Hey, Angel." 


	2. Ch 2

As they entered Wolfram & Hart Dawn tried to wrench herself out of Angel's hold, but his hand kept a firm grip on her upper arm. She had been right. From the moment his surprise wore off he had been railing at her. Lecturing her on the dangers of roaming the city alone, asking her where Buffy was. It didn't really matter because she had been tuning him out the whole time.  
  
At first she had tried to walk away from him, but that was when Angel had seized her and refused to let go, insisting that he take her back to his place so he could keeping an eye on her until he reached Buffy. Dawn was seething anger. Where did he come off, thinking he had a right to play her personal babysitter? At seventeen she felt she didn't need a babysitter. Especially not him.  
  
Finally, She whirled around to face him. "Angel, Let go of me!"  
  
He didn't even look phased by her outburst, just kept leading her down the hall.  
  
"Who do you think you are?!"  
  
"Dawn -"  
  
"Let go of me!" Angel dropped his hand be stayed blocking her escape route. At least he no longer had a death grip on her. "Why did you drag me here anyway?!"  
  
"I'm not letting you out of my sight until I call Buffy."  
  
Dawn's eyes widened a little in fear. Buffy would kill her if Angel made that call. She decided her only option was to beg. Dawn put on her best puppy dog face and pleaded, "No, don't call Buffy. Call Willow, anybody besides my sister. You don't know how angry she'll be. Buffy might actually kill me. Please, call anyone but her."  
  
Angel's features softened a little when he heard the slight trembled of Dawn's voice, but he had to call her sister. "Dawn, I have an obligation -"  
  
"You don't have an obligation to do anything!"  
  
Spike stretched out on the bed in his new suite and grabbed a book off his bedside table. Even after a century he couldn't quell his love of the written word. Very few people knew of his desire to read every book in sight. Only Buffy was aware of that little secret. He might not have even told her if Buffy hadn't caught him at it. It was something he had even kept from Dru. Now that Buffy was gone he didn't plan on letting anyone else close enough to find out. He might not have even told her if Buffy hadn't caught him at it.  
  
He missed her, missed her so much that it was sometimes almost unbearable to exist without her. But he had made his choice. Buffy deserved to live her life to the fullest. How could she do that if he just suddenly decided to pop in and say, "Hey, I'm not dead." It would upset her, throw her now peaceful world out of whack. He couldn't ever do that to her. He loved her too much.  
  
And yet, she had said she loved him. Spike didn't believe her. He knew she cared for him, but love. No, it had just been something that she had said in the moment, because he was about to be a pile of dust. That was all it had been. And Spike was fine with that. He got to go out as a hero, saving the world and all that rot, with the girl he loved finally able to be proud of him. Not a bad way to go.  
  
Spike shook off all the thoughts of Buffy that decided to assault his mind and tried to read his book. He might have actually accomplished the task but just then he heard yelling right outside his door. Not just any yelling either, it was Peaches and some bird. Very interesting.  
  
Hopping off the bed, Spike silently made his way to the door to get a better listen. Whoever this girl was she really didn't like Angel, that was for sure. As the seconds rolled by and the woman's voice escalated higher, Spike began to recognize it. He should have been able to tell who it was sooner, but that didn't really matter because he knew who it was now. Still he just had to see her to believe it.  
  
Swinging open the door to his suite Spike found Angel and a woman standing with her back to him. He knew it was her. Only Summers women smelled like that. "Niblet?"


End file.
